Easy Fix for Vinyl Tiles Won’t Stick?

LESLIE: Darlene in Arizona, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?

DARLENE: I’m remodeling a bathroom into a laundry room.  So, I put the stick-on linoleum squares on the floor, which was probably a mistake, but it’s all down. And now I notice, on the edges, it’s starting to pull up just a bit. It’s fine in the middle but around the edges – and so I was wondering, should I use a silicone around – kind of pull them up a little bit, put silicone around there or a water-based sealant of some kind? I just didn’t know quite what to do if we put the washing machine in there and there was a leak. And then I was afraid the whole floor would come up or something.

TOM: So do you think if you kept pulling the tiles, they would all come up completely?

DARLENE: I think the reason why the sides are – maybe the floor isn’t quite even on the edges or something. I’m just thinking that maybe it wasn’t quite even. And it’s not every side but just part of it. Right where the washer is going to be, as a matter of fact.

TOM: Well, look, if you were able to lift up those edges and add a tile adhesive underneath that – a regular floor-tile adhesive: the kind of tile adhesive that you would use if you were laying down these vinyl tiles from scratch – and then you weighted it while it dried, that would probably be the best chance you’ve got of preventing those linoleum tiles from coming back up again. But I’ve got to tell you that it’s been my experience that once these seams start to go, you fix one and two more pop up. So this might be something you’re chasing.

And if it’s only a small area, what you could also consider is basically replacing the vinyl floor with laminate floor. You know, just a small amount of laminate flooring won’t be that expensive and it can be laid down right on top of that vinyl floor. Laminate floors will float; they don’t need to be attached. They sort of lock together and they will lay down on top of that. You put a saddle in where you – like at the doors and that kind of stuff. But that would give you a really durable floor and you wouldn’t have to worry about it.

DARLENE: Well, that’d be better than pulling it all up. That’s a good idea. Thank you very much.